Our roommate went out and purchased a Yamaha TTR230 ( 4 stroke motorcycle) last week so he could go out to the desert on our jeep excursions. As only his second venture into offroad motorcycling and the first time he has ridden out in the desert he did very well. Nothing like miles and miles of whoops to ruin the honeymoon

We parked down near the airport in Ocotilla Wells at the bottom of Cross Hill. Today Wendy was driving for the most part and she headed off cross country making a beeline to Devil’s Slide. She’s either adjusted to riding a bumpy trail or she couldn’t see every bump she hit. My inquiry into whether she saw the bumps and didn’t care or just couldn’t see them was met with a “Shut up, Sit Down and Hold On”. Frankly you have to be scared of the monsters you create.

We left Devil’s Slide and headed out to Shell Reef. Shell Reef is a wall that many off roaders will spend time at climbing and jumping. There is everything from extreme verticals to nice berms to practice on. It was really fun watching some of the bikes doing doubles and funner watching the ones that just quite didn’t.

After playing around here for a until afternoon, we headed down to the Blu Inn. This cafe/store/gas station just east of Ocotillo Wells offers a selection of burgers, dogs and other sandwiches, which taste awesome after eating dirt all day.

We then followed State Route 78 east (miles and miles of whoops) to Pole Line Road. That took us north almost to Salton Sea and The Gas Dome Trail. An easy drive up this trail takes you to the Gas Dome. These mysterious, volcano-like mud pots of bubbling liquid are located approximately one and one-half miles into the public lands of the Bureau of Land Management. Cold to the touch, the gray water releases large bubbles of gas.

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